Tab Notation

Tab is short for tablature and is the term you'll usually see. Tab
is a shortcut notation that indicates how to play which hole
on the harmonica. This is different from standard musical
notation, which indicates what note to play, including its
relative
duration. The difference is between
how to play a hole
and whatnote to play. How to play a note on the
harmonica
is specified by several things:

which hole to play,

whether you are inhaling (i.e. drawing) or exhaling (i.e. blowing), and

what alteration to apply,

be it a bend,

overblow,

other harp specific effect.

Of course, how to play a note on a harp is equivalent to what note
pitch
gets played, so tab is a kind of shortcut or aid to standard musical
notation.
What tab doesn't show well is timing and rhythm, which is why standard
notation is better for really communicating just how something is
supposed
to sound. Ways to show timing for tab include providing the
lyrics,
when possible, or indicating the measures (bars) and the beats.
Tab
can also be used in conjunction with standard musical notation to
augument
the standard notation with harmonica-specific techniques and effects.

I have considered several important factors for good tab notation
conventions,
including:

Using standard ASCII characters (instead of arrows or other special
graphic
characters, as is seen so often) so the tab can be easily typed on a
standard
keyboard and e-mailed or posted on web pages, etc.

Keeping all the characters for a note or chord on the same line, for
ease
of reading

Not using letters like B, D, b, etc., which can be confused with note
names

Selecting characters that maximize "white space", which makes the tab
easier
to scan

Minimizing the number of characters needed to specify the way a hole is
played

I just wanted to add a couple comments about Jerry Portnoy's
rendition
of Misty. I heard him do it at SPAH 97, and--despite not being
that
fond of the song before hand--I was blown away by how great a job that
Jerry did. He was so attentive to the details.. rhythmic,
pitch--especially
on the embarrassingly exposed intermediate bends (3 draw whole step
(3")
and 2 draw half step (2') bend), and tone (see note with pitch). It's a
piece where "the slow" is definitely in evidence, less is more. His
tone
on the bends was just killer.. very horn like I thought. It's great
practice
for those intermediate bends because 1)the melody is so well known,
you're
familiar with what the note must sound like, and 2)the bends are right
out there on important sustained notes.. you've got to get them clean
and
strong and pure. There is also some good work on the top end. The 9
blow
bend (9>') is the key note of the melody on the bridge.. you have it
hit
it without ever getting the unbent 9 blow.. same with the 10 blow whole
step bend (10>").. but you go from 9>' to and from 8>, so
you've got to
keep hitting the 9>' plain, without bending into or out of it.

How to Make Your Own Harp Tab

Here's a great way to easily make your own harp tab.

Get the shareware program, Melody Assistant, from http://www.myriad-online.com Available in several languages for Mac or PC.
(1a. If you like it and use it, send them the $20 registration
fee.
Unbelievably reasonable price.)

Search the web for any MIDI song you like, and download it.
There are thousands of MIDI files out there for just about any music
style
you could want, including blues, jazz, classical, pop, rock, country,
hymns,
etc.

Open the MIDI file in Melody Assistant, select the part with the
melody,
and give the "Edit Tab" command.

Melody Assistant offers 3 different harp tab styles (as well as guitar
tab), and will optionally optimize for breath direction and show
overblows.
You can specify the key of the harp, so you can get the tab for any
position
you want. Plus, it supports all the standard commercial special
tunings,
or you can define your own tuning!

Presto! That's it! Now you've got tab for any song you can find in
MIDI,
in any position, for any tuning of harp!

You can even play the MIDI and follow the tab along with the melody
as the song plays. This is a great way to learn new songs.
There are even options that allow you to color the notes, say making
blow
notes, draw notes, and bends a different color, making the music easier
to read.

AND, you can learn to associate standard notation with the harp
tab!
This is a super way to learn how to read standard notation, since the
harp
tab's right there with the music notation. It's also nice because
you can get the timing and rhythm information from the standard
notation,
and use the tab to get the right pitch.

If you don't find the MIDI song you want, you can always go buy a
book
of sheet music, quickly enter in the melody, then use Melody Assistant
to generate the harp tab.